Thursday, 14 January 2016

Samael - Blood Ritual

SAMAEL - Blood Ritual (CENTURY MEDIA - CD 1992)

“Ceremony of Opposites” will
always be my personal number one in Samael discography, but the two previous
albums – “Worship Him” and “Blood Ritual” – are also damn close to perfection
and I love them almost as much as I love “Ceremony…”. But then if I was going
to choose between “Worship Him” and “Blood Ritual” then I never know, which of
these two albums I like more. Each has something special and each delivers such
a stunning piece of doomy black metal… damn, they’re just classic releases and
an important records in the history of black metal.

“Blood Ritual” is pretty much
a continuation of “Worship Him”, speaking of the style of music that Samael was
performing. But it shows a great progression in songwriting skills, as surely
an album number two has some better written songs, there are better ideas,
great arrangements and absolutely essential, killer riffs and more so, it
sounds more powerful. “Blood Ritual” is sometimes also a bit more harmonious,
is easier to listen to, which may be surprising to some… and that probably
comes mainly because the production of “Blood…” is not as raw and obscure as
the debut’s. Maybe that’s actually something what I personally prefer on the
first album – that harshness and cruel sound of slow paced black metal and that
it was bringing along an utterly dark, morbid, evil aura that freeze blood
every time you hear it. All this is slightly missing on “Blood Ritual”. Or
let’s put it this way – better production and slightly more accessible playing
here and there has removed a little of the obscurity and evilness from Samael.
Of course “Blood Ritual” is still a satanic doomy black metal album. And it
still fuckin kicks ass, because as I mentioned they swapped the harshness for
absolutely fantastic amazing riffs and killer songwriting. There are so many
memorable, unforgettable riffs and songs here, many more than on the debut
record!! Starting with “Beyond Nothingness” – damn, what a fine and crushing
song this is! But later you have “After the Sepulture”, which is maybe even my
favourite Samael tune ever! It’s so damn powerful, heavy, dark and incredibly
gloomy song, you must love it. “With the Gleam of the Torches” is another my
personal favourite here. And even if the whole album is rather slow and the
tempo hardly ever changes (the title track is the only faster piece here), it
has absolutely no trace of monotony and boredom, all because the song
structures are varied and so much is going in each track, there are so many
ideas and brilliant arrangements that it’s enough to keep you focused. Such
“Macabre Operetta” is seven minutes long, with very short lyrics and short
vocals parts, but the playing is great and actually a lot like on the debut
album.

I need to mention also the
subtle use of some keyboards or acoustics, especially in songs like “Since the
Creation” and more so in the excellent, kind of ritualistic, “Total
Consecration”. They probably show a growing interest of Xytras in playing
keyboards, something what they’ll exceed on “Ceremony of Opposites” and later
albums even more. Anyways, what they’ve done with them here should not disturb
those fans, who don’t like to hear keyboards in metal music. And if it does
anyway, then who cares really?